Breaches of data security are serious matters for businesses around the world. A single data breach can result in significant expenses for the company experiencing a breach. For example, in 2013 the Ponemon Institute conducted a study which found that the average cost of a data breach incident to United States businesses was $5.4 million. When intangible costs such as loss of consumer trust and bad publicity are added, it is clear that businesses have a financial incentive to improve their data security.
Corporate data breaches commonly occur due to carelessness of corporate employees. Employees may fall for phishing emails or text messages, access websites hosting malware, or fall for other lures that lead them to disclose sensitive data or compromise computer systems. Similarly, individuals and households, or users of non-corporate systems such as university students, can be subject to data breaches. Even responsible users can unwittingly be lured by a phishing attack. IBM recently cited in their 2014 Security Services Cyber Security Intelligence Index that over 95 percent of all security incidents investigated recognize “human error” as a contributing factor.
Accordingly, businesses seek better ways of mitigating data breaches, and especially solutions that can help prevent data breaches.
This document describes methods and systems that address at least some of the issues described above, or additional issues.